The Bates'es
by Ilzzell
Summary: Set after series 3 Christmas special. Mainly concentrating on the Bateses and some addition to their little family. Final chapter is up.
1. Chapter 1

Anna and Bates are sitting at the table in the servant's hall downstairs, talking and mending clothes before they are needed again. Mary's bell rings and Anna starts to get up. "Are you alright? Don't tire yourself out too much." Bates says. "Don't worry my love" Anna replies as she stands up and reveals her pregnant belly. "Lady Crawley knows just as well as I what my limits are." "But she never had to work like you, remember she still danced at 8 months pregnant." "She knows that wasn't the best idea, besides we are going to discuss today when my replacement will start, so don't you worry too much Mr. Bates. Now I better go up before it's too late." With these words Anna leaves the room and Bates continues his work.

Upstairs Anna is doing Mary's hair as there is a knock on the door and the nursery maid enters with little Matthew on her arm. "Milady, sorry to bother you but Matthew has just said his first word and I wouldn't have you delay hearing it." "How wonderful" Lady Mary replies as she stretches her arms to the little boy. "Mamma" says the boy as soon as he is in his mothers' arms. Mary squeals and kisses him on his forehead.

Anna stands aside with her hand on her belly, only 2 more months and she will hold her own little baby in her arms. She smiles wide at this thought and stares at Mary with little Matthew, until Mary breaks the spell by calling Anna's name. "Could you finish my hair please so I have time to bring him to bed myself before I go to dinner." "Of course Milady", and Anna continues while Matthew sits on his mothers lap.

As Anna is finished Mary gets up and realises it is time to go downstairs. "Would you mind taking him to bed?" Mary asks. "No problem, gives me time to practice" and she takes the boy from his mother. "Give your mother a night kiss and I'll bring you to bed".

Anna follows Mary out and walks towards the nursery. She sees Bates in the corridor "You are such a natural mother already", he tells her. They smile and he holds the door open to the nursery. Anna puts the baby to bed and as she turns around she sees Bates looking at her from the door opening. She gives him a little kiss and they walk arm in arm downstairs. "Did you manage to speak to Lady Mary today?" He asks. "I'm afraid not, as I was about to bring it up the maid came in with little Matthew. He said his first word today 'mamma'." They smiled. "Such a shame he will not be able to say papa." "No, but lets hope our little one will be able to say both, there has been enough misery around birth in this house." She said and he wrapped his arm around her. "We have had quite our deal of trouble in the past, it's now time for joy."

The next morning Anna wakes up early, John is still asleep next to her. He is normally the one up first, but then she realises what woke her up, the baby inside her wildly kicks around. Even before its birth it already knows to keep her awake at night. She wraps her arms over her belly and tries to sleep again.

It feels like she had only been asleep for 5 minutes when her husband woke her up, this was going to be a long day.

After breakfast they walk to the house together. Anna is still holding her belly. "Are you feeling well my love? You look awfully pale and didn't have much to eat." Bate asks his wife. "Not very to be honest, the baby has been kicking all night. I'll take it slow today." "Please do, and tell Ms. Hughes if you don't feel well at all." "I will, I should be fine after Lady Mary is dressed and I can sit for a moment." As they enter the servants' hall the bell for his lordship begins to ring. Bates kisses his wife and goes upstairs.

"Do you feel well?" Lady Mary asks looking at Anna in the mirror. "You look rather pale." "Sorry Milady, I haven't had much sleep tonight with the baby kicking", "Oh I'm glad those sleepless nights are over." Anna smiles softly, after her baby is born there will be plenty more sleepless nights to come; she won't have a nanny to take care of that like Mary.

"Talking about the baby, I was wondering if you had any successful applicants to replace me." "Actually, I selected the letters and someone is coming tomorrow, would you mind sitting in with the interview? I depend on your view of the person and you will have to work together." "Of course, as much as I enjoy this work I feel I can't continue much longer before the baby comes." "Naturally, that trip up to the highlands had taken too much of my energy at 8 months. Besides you do much more physical work. How is your nursery getting along?" "Almost finished. Fortunately we had painted the spare room in a basic colour when we moved in and Mr. Bates has found some lovely furniture in town. I am nearly finished knitting a blanket, a couple more evenings and we are ready." "Wonderful, once it is born I'll make sure to visit you, reverse the roles." They both laughed. Anna had sat down and was clutching her belly again. "Anna, why don't you go home, I'll ask Edith's ladies maid to dress me for dinner, we don't expect any guests today. You may finish that blanket and go to bed early." "Thank you milady, I much appreciate that and I should hopefully feel better to see the new maid tomorrow."

On her way out Anna walks into Mrs. Hughes. "Lady Mary has signed me off for the day as I am not feeling well, would you let Mr. Bates know I have gone home but not to worry." "Well of course Anna, anything I can do for you?" "No thank you, I just need some rest."

After hearing his wife has gone home John Bates walks home in his afternoon break. Inside he finds her asleep on the sofa, the half knitted blanket balancing on her belly. What an angel she is. Carefully he takes away the knitting and wakes her. "What time is it?" She asks sleepy. "Around 3 in the afternoon, I just came to check on you and brought you some lunch," He shows her a packet of sandwiches. "You should eat something." "Thank you" she replies with a kiss, and sits up on the sofa. "Thank god that food has given some colour in your cheeks, you were starting to look like a ghost." John says after she has eaten her sandwiches. "They did me good, however I'd still like to lie down in bed for a little while". Slowly he helps Anna up and supports her up the stairs to their bedroom. "Now go back to work before both of us are out of service" Anna says jokingly as she is settled in bed. "I'll be back to the good old me tomorrow." He kisses her goodbye and goes back to the house.

"Is everything in order with Anna?" Lord Grantham asks Mr. Bates, as he gets dressed for dinner, "Mary told me she had send her home this morning." "Yes thank you my Lord, she didn't have much sleep last night, but I believe she has been sleeping a great deal today to catch up on it." "I'm glad, it can be such a ghastly business seeing your wife suffer and there is nothing you can do." "Oh yes my lord, and I'm afraid the worst is yet to come." "Anna is a strong woman, you don't need to worry about that. But if there is anything you like advice on at some point, I'm quite the expert." "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind." Bates collected the clothes and Lord Grantham made his way out to the dining room.


	2. Chapter 2

It is night, from far away in his sleep John hears his name being called and he feels being pulled at. Slowly he awakes and realises its his wife trying to wake him up. "John, John, its time, wake up!" Time for what? His mind is blurry and the clock tells it is not time yet for work. Then he wakes up with a bang, it's baby time! "Don't worry! I'll run up to the house to call the doctor." He helps her sit up in the bed, gives a quick kiss and runs out of their cottage.

The servants entrance is normally locked at night, however Mr. Carson had given a spare key so they would be able to enter in case of emergency and this was one. John Bates goes into Carson's parlour and calls the hospital. A midwife would come straight away and he was to prepare hot water and towels.

As he goes out the room Mrs. Hughes comes down the stairs with a pile of old towels, "I suppose you will need those and take a large pan from the kitchen to boil water in." "How did you know?" Bates startles at her. "Why else would you telephone here at night? The creaking door woke me and your half step revealed you." She explains. "I apologise for waking you, but lets get to the cottage before the midwife gets there." Mrs. Hughes follows him and locks the door behind her back.

Inside the cottage Mrs. Hughes orders Bates to boil the water while she goes up to see to Anna. Soon the midwife arrives and also disappears up the stairs into the bedroom, which was now forbidden territory for men.

"Bates, would you be so kind to go to the house," Mrs. Hughes poked her head around the door, "inform Carson and send a maid to help here. They should all be up by now and wondering where I am."

Despite him wanting to be close to Anna, John is grateful going outside, all he could do inside was walking up and down the hallway, hoping for a sign from upstairs. Carson immediately sends a maid to the cottage so Mrs. Hughes could return, and forces Bates to stay here, he would only make himself nervous in the cottage.

Reluctantly he sits down in the servants' hall with a book, but could not concentrate. His Lordships bell rung, he might as well go up and see after him like every other morning.

"My dear Bates, is anything the matter?" Lord Grantham enquires as soon as Bates enters. "Anna is in labour, your lordship." Bates replies. "Then why are you here dressing me?" "There didn't seem much room for a man in the cottage to be honest. Mrs. Hughes, a maid and a midwife are all buzzing around her." "Fair point, but still you shouldn't be working. Go into my library, relax and distract yourself." "Thank you milord, it won't be easy to distract myself, but I won't be very productive today either."

Later, both men are sat in the library as Daisy comes rushing in. "Mr. Bates! Please come! Oh excuse me milord", she notices Lord Grantham, bows and turns back to Bates. "The baby is born and they are both well, they have send me to fetch you." "Thank you Daisy." Bates replies with a broad smile. "Congratulations Bates", Lord Grantham pats Bates on his shoulder, "go see your family and I'll inform mine."

Bates follows Daisy out. "Mr. Bates, when can we see the baby?" She asks while they walk down. "First let Anna and the baby rest and then in a couple of days Mrs. Hughes will tell when you are welcome." He replies.

In the servants quarter John grabs his coat and makes his way to the cottage. He wish he could run, he didn't want to wait any longer to see his wife and child.

Inside the cottage as he hangs up his coat the midwife pokes her head from the staircase. "Ah Mr. Bates, please come up." He makes his way up and the midwife clears the bedroom to give the family some time together.

There they are, Anna sits up in bed looking like an angel, with the little baby in her arms. She looks up as he enters and he first kisses her before he turns to the child. It is quietly sleeping in its mother's arms. "It's beautiful" is all he can stammer. "SHE is beautiful" Anna corrects him, "it's a girl". "Our daughter" he smiles and strokes their baby's cheek. Slowly she opens her eyes and stares at her father with big blue eyes. The little girl smiles and they both smile at the wonder between them. "She looks just like you", he exclaims. "No I think she has your nose." Anna replies while stroking the soft baby's hair. They sit in silence for some time, enjoying the little family they are now.

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**I feel one more chapter coming up. Suggestions for baby names are welcome. **


	3. Chapter 3

_I'm not too satisfied about this chapter, but thought I'd better just upload and possibly update later. _

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After the birth of their little girl John soon had to go back to work. He met Lady Mary Crawley in the hallway.  
"How are Anna and the baby doing?" She asked. "Very well milady. They are both in good health and Anna is such a natural mother." "I'm glad to hear. Would it suit if I came to visit tomorrow after luncheon? I have a little present I like to give when both of you are at home. I'm sure papa could spare you some time in the afternoon." "That is very kind of you milady. Let me know once you are ready tomorrow and we can walk to the cottage together." "I will Mr. Bates, send Anna and the baby my love."

The next day they walked to the cottage together. Tom also decided to come and was carrying a large basket. Mrs. Patmore had given Bates a cake, so they could offer their guests something by the tea.

Lady Mary sat down next to Anna on the sofa and dotted the baby, while John prepared tea in the kitchen.

"And what do you call her? I can't keep referring to the 'bates baby'." They both laughed. "Eileen. Our shining light." Anna replied. "Hello my dear Eileen" Mary said to the little girl while lightly tickling her. Eileen cried in excitement.

Once they all had their tea Mary said; "we have a present for you from the whole family that papa will hand you, but we did not want to come hear empty handed." Tom pointed at the basket and continued: "as there probably won't be another baby girl upstairs for some time, we thought this might be of more use for you."  
John opened the basket; it was filled with baby clothes and anything else they might need. Anna had tears in her eyes "thank, thank you so much" she stammered.  
"They are all young Sybil's clothes she has grown out of." Mary explained. "We know like no other how quick they grow out of their clothes." Tom added.  
John held up a pink dress "for now I can't even imagine how she will fit in here, let alone grow bigger." Anna wiped away her tears "this is absolutely wonderful, thank you very much."

They talked some more, until they all had to go back to the house. When they left Anna went through the basket; clothing, nappies, even some toys. It would have cost them a fortune if they had to buy all of that. She was immensely grateful for her employer and dear friend.

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**Thats it for now. I'd much appreciate a review and let me know if you like me to continue or leave it here. **


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